Page 47 - Bhojpuri Verb Morphology

CHAPTER-4

TENSE, ASPECT, MOOD AND MODALITY

4.0 Outline

This chapter discusses the tense, aspect, mood, modality and agreement system in

Bhojpuri language. It consists of four sections. Section 4.1 deals with tense in
Bhojpuri. Section 4.2 deals with aspect in Bhojpuri. Likewise in section 4.3, we have

dealt with mood and modality in Bhojpuri. Section 4.4 presents the agreement system
in Bhojpuri. And finally section 4.5 summarizes the findings of the chapter.

4.1 Tense

According to Comrie (1985:9) tense is grammatical expression of location in time.

Similarly, Payne (1997:233) describes that tense is associated with the sequence of
events in real time.

Masica (1991:279) notes that the real tenses are present and past, to which future may

be added. Three tenses are found in Bhojpuri. These are past, present and future. Past
tense locates the situation prior to the present moment, now. The future tense refers to

the situation/event after the present time/now and the present tense refers to the
moment of speaking. The figure presents the tense system in Bhojpuri.

Figure 2: Division of Time.

Past Present Future

(not now) (moment of speaking or now) (not now)

This is illustrated in examples (23 a, b, c):

(23)

Past tense

a. 

 --

I chapati eat-PST-1

'I ate a chapati.'

30